Weekender: King Still Answering Call for St. John's

After a fruitless first stint
with St. John's, senior goalie Mike King was lured back to the
program. Since his return, he has been one of the top goalies in
the MCLA and a spark for the Johnnies when he comes out of the
cage.

The call for Michael King to become the best goalie in MCLA
Division II came on a Friday night.

With St. John's starting goalie lost for the season with a knee
injury suffered the day before in practice, a couple of the seniors
on the Johnnies gave King a call back in 2010 to see if he'd suit
up for a road trip to Iowa State to play the Cyclones and No. 2
Grand Valley State down in Ames.

King had already given it a go around with the Johnnies earlier
in the spring. Although he came to St. John's to play hockey and
attend the school where is aunt and uncle were both professors, he
was coaxed out to the lacrosse field in the preseason after he
received an email from head coach Derek Daehn.

With starting goalie Stu Van Ess, who happened to be the top
goalie on the hockey team ahead of King, otherwise occupied, King
got an opportunity to play a couple of games. The first was against
Wheaton in which the Johnnies rolled.

"Wheaton was ranked when we played them," King said. "I didn't
know a lot about club lacrosse, but to beat a team that was ranked
and we were up by 10 goals in the first half? If this is the way
it's going to be, I'm never going to do anything, so what's the
point of sitting on bench when you get 20-goal wins every
game?"

When Van Ess, who was an MCLA All-American, returned to his
accustomed spot, the writing was on the wall.

"It was probably a little bit about not knowing whether this was
something that was going to change his life," Daehn said. "'Are
these going to be buddies of mine for the rest of my life, or is
this going to be a flash in the pan thing and I should focus on
school and hockey. I think there was a crossroads of not knowing
exactly what he wanted."

King decided to hang up his lacrosse stick.

And then the phone rang that night.

"They said, 'Hey, King, we need you," said King of his
conversation with a couple of seniors. "I literally got a call on
Friday night at 10 p.m. and I got on the bus with them at 7 a.m.
the next morning."

With King in the net, the Johnnies shut out Iowa State and beat
then-No. 2 Grand Valley State on a goal scored with 1.2 seconds
left in the contest.

"It was one of the coolest athletic contests I've ever been a
part of," King said. "I was like, 'This is more like it. This is a
lot more like a sport than the lashing we were putting on other
teams.' It was really unfortunate for Stu, but it was fortunate for
me because it allowed me to become friends with the guys in the
quickest way. If it hadn't been for that chance and getting that
call on Friday night, I wouldn't still be great friends with those
guys."

"After that game, you could just see, especially the seniors and
juniors, the players saying, 'This kid is for real,'" Daehn said.
"That was the moment where he was like, 'OK, I belong.' Getting in
a big game and being someone everybody looks to when things break
down, we have somebody solid in the goal who can save us."

Since that time, St. John's has gone 39-11, won a conference
championship in 2011 and advanced to the national tournament every
season. King has made every one of those games interesting. Not
because of the numerous close scores, but due to the fact that he
is not the type of goalie who stands in the crease waiting for the
action to come to him. He's constantly flying out on ground balls
and is often used as a one-man clear in the face of a hard
ride.

It's a much different approach than that of a hockey goalie, who
is tethered to the net for the most part. But King learned the
importance of being active outside of the crease during his time at
Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Mo. With varying levels of
skill among his teammates, King's high school coach told him he
needed to be a factor all over the field.

"'You're athletic and you've got to help us out here,'" King
remembered his coaching telling him. "'That's your job. Even when
your hands aren't working and your eyes aren't moving — every
goalie has an off day — you've got to help your team.' It
made sense to me that way. I'd like to think I'm as conditioned as
any midfielder. I like to be athletic."

The talent level is considerably higher at St. John's, which has
traditionally been known for its superb defenders. Senior Steve
Johnson, who has been a three-time first-team All-American for the
Johnnies, is just the latest in that line. Still, King feels it's
his duty to help them out whenever he can.

"If Steve Johnson or one of our defensemen is going into the
corner and getting hacked for a ground ball that I could have
gotten to two steps sooner, that doesn't make a whole lot of
sense," King said. "Plus, possessions are key. A ground ball to me
is as important as a save. It's always a constant mental game for
me about when to take those chances and try to pick up something
for our team and make a play. There is a risk-reward factor. Not
everything always goes the right way, but it's a numbers game and
I'm confident in our guys and want to give them a chance."

King's forays out of the net have caused Daehn to hold his
breath on occasions. The coach is obviously worried about a bad
turnover, but an injury to his star goalie would be a heavy blow to
his team. Even with the increased angst level, Daehn is rarely
disappointed.

"We had Davenport here two years ago and we played them Friday
night and in the first quarter they had a pretty good ride on us,"
Daehn said. "We didn't quite get it. Mike's at midfield and had
just made a pretty ridiculous move on a guy, and I'm yelling at him
to move the ball and get it to the attack. He had a little bit of
an angle to slip and he ended up getting by the defenseman and
scoring. I was like, 'OK, all right.'"

Even though he wears a big bulls-eye when he is carrying the
ball up the field, King has been surprisingly adept at avoiding big
hits in the open field. He's always aware of his surroundings after
learning a painful lesson during a high school practice when a
defenseman — a player who would end up walking on at Missouri
as a linebacker — caught him with his head down.

"I beat the attackmen and midfielders up the field, but I did
not see the first slide and he crushed me," remembered King. "I had
a late growth spurt and in high school I was maybe 5-foot-5, 140
pounds and he was already a full grown man. I think he had a full
beard since he was seven years old. He just crushed me. I got right
back up and tried to remember my home address, but that was pretty
much the last time. The worst pains I've always had are from the
howitzers from seven or eight yards."

There will be more field-length runs and howitzers for King
over the next six days when St. John's runs a gauntlet of top
teams. It starts Friday night with a game against No. 15 Grand
Valley State followed by No. 5 Dayton on Saturday, No. 16 Indiana
Tech on Monday and No. 13 Western Oregon on Wednesday. A blood
rivalry game against top-ranked St. Thomas awaits soon after.

It's a run that won't be too unlike that one St. John's will
have to make if it wants to achieve its ultimate goal of winning a
national championship. And if all goes according to plan, King will
receive a phone call from his teammates on a Friday night in May,
asking him once again if he's ready to help them the next day.